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Wednesday, April 09, 2008

Coming Home..

Why is coming home from a trip so hard to do?It's true you did have cold feet about leaving - that's long forgotten.

There is the dreaded unpacking.

And new aquisitions to put away, which in my case will fill about 2 sandwich bags.

Piles of bills and paperwork anxiously await you.

Then there's the Jet lag. You go to sleep at 8 PM and want to eat breakfast at 2:30 AM

And of course something always breaks in transit or as soon as you get home, like your brand new and much prized Paris cafe table.

You run out and buy a new piggie bank and start saving for the next trip.

Maybe the hardest thing is the loss of that sense of urgency. The thing that gets you out of bed in morning and rushing out the door to see what new adventures await you.Any good tips on making re-entry easier will be most appreciated.

Bless your heart, you sound so blue~but don't worry, it is just the pendulumswinging....all that excitement and nowthe quiet. You are simply exhausted.Give yourself a SPA day, hot soaks andbubble baths and little treats that makeyou feel better all day long.

I love the pix- so illustrative! See if you can find a little bit of Paris in New York. I absolutley adore English gardens and find many to visit on former Estates turned into historic landmarks. It is a great escape for an afternoon.

Bring back things to remind you of your trip that you can use on a daily basis, so you will have that pleasant feeling of remembering your trip. Some things I have brought home from Paris – the little tubes of sugar – we can only get the packets – Café de Flore teapot, cup and saucer, small creamery pitcher, and Mariage Frères tea. Then, there are the Côte-d'Or chocolate bars and Maille mustard. For me, though, what makes coming home easier is planning to get together with the kids and grandkids to tell them about our trip and give them their souvenirs.

In reply to your request for help to be happy now that you've come back from Paris, the answer is to be here now and not in your thoughts of the past. 'Happiness lies in the now'.Even as you show us the beautiful images you captured in Paris, you can stay in the now. As I look at the first image below the cup and saucer and the people in the chairs, I can see its beauty and yet be right here in the now. 'Happiness is here and now'.

I know how you feel. I returned home on March 1st and I'm still feeling strange but I had been in Paris for over 6 months. Apparently, it's called reverse culture shock. You will feel a stranger in your own country for awhile. Just take it slowly. Knowing that you are dealing reverse culture shock helps. I have heard that the time period to get over it corresponds with the period of time that you have been away.

After spending the summer in Paris studying at the Sorbonne with my youngest daughter we found ourselves restless when we got back. We realized we needed to walk and talk together because no one else understood what we had done, nor did anyone else want to walk as fast or as far as we could walked.

Transition. Rarely comfortable, undeniably necessary. We are part one thing and yet becoming another. Review, dreams, anticipation..all while making groceries and filling that bank...it is a rich brew. Sign me up. :)Welcome home. Jan

I am American but grew up in Africa. The hardest time in my life was coming back to what was supposed to be "home" to me. Years later, I'm still happiest when I'm transient and visiting another culture. My advice: visit your friends right away upon returning, and keep planning more trips!

What gets me through my "I can't wait to get back to Paris" blues is reading books about Paris, watching Bourne Identity, playing the game "what would be the first thing I'd do on my first morning back in Paris," looking at other people's Paris photos on the internet, and looking though my personal Paris photo scrapbook aout once a week.As you can see, it takes a lot of work!

Your love of place really comes out in what you wrote, Carol. Sweet, nostalgic post. I hope you can glue your little cafe table together again--will you paint it?! Love the piggy bank! Pink, too! I say paint memories of it all, so you can reminisce, and we can all enjoy, as we always do. I feel like I went with you already!

I think you nailed it when you said "the loss of urgency". That's it for me. I'm a night owl and a later riser in my every day life but on vacation, ANY vacation, I'm first one out of bed and out the door because there is so much to do, so much not to miss, so much to experience, and I don't want to waste of minute of the day. When I come home, fizzzzzzzle, I lose that momentum. I'm still trying to come up with a way to keep the energy going, but I'm afraid I haven't found the perfect solution yet.

People have given you lots of good suggestions that I won't repeat, instead I'll add one more that helped me. For awhile, treat your home base as a vacation location. Try to see it through the eyes of a tourist. Or pretend you have an invisible guest from another culture accompanying you through the day and imagine what would delight, awe, surprise or confuse them about the routines and places you take for granted. Fit some activities into your day that a visitor would do - visit a local museum, try a new restaurant, talk with strangers...

First of all: THANK YOU for your helpfull suggestions!I woke up this morning and realized that part of the problem is in all the pre-planning.You spend weeks, well really months planning your next trip. YOu do tons of research. Make lists of where you want to go and the hours and days etc.But you do no planning for home coming.At least I didn't give it a thought. So it becomes a bit of a shock and you're not at all prepared for it.Maybe I need to go back to Paris RIGHT AWAY and Start planning my re-entry? ? ?

This is not from Dr. Phil, Carol, this is from your friend Dr. Bill.All the comments preceeding mine reflect a wonderful thing. Your "Paris Breakfast" friends are sincerely concerned about the well being of someone whose intellect, talents as an artist and writer, and wonderful sense of humor (as in today's blog) start their day.Lucky you! Lucky us!

Planning your re-entry. LOL! I'm leaving for Paris in just a few days and so I thought, do I have a plan for my re-entry? Well, yes, I do. On my return I'll only have enough time to take a deep breath, repack, and then it's off for a week of camping in the redwoods with a hundred high school sophomores on the northern California coastline. THAT should keep me from having too much time on my hands, eh!? In fact, somehow I've managed to end up with some sort of majorish travel plan scheduled into every single month of this year - until December, but that's when everyone travels to see me for the holidays. It's a great way to avoid the post-trip blahs but the big drawback is I have no idea how I'm going to get anything done this year. Okay, probably not the type of problem I'm going to get any sympathy from anybody for.

I just returned and found that the Spa day and tea or coffee in a nice local cafe make re-entry easier. During THIS trip I kept track of the things that I loved the most and looked at my home with new eyes. It's spring in the Phoenix desert also, and I took the camera and photographed all of the wonderful blossoms on the trees and cacti. I took the time to go to the gardens at local resorts to adore the flowers (like I did when I visited the hidden gardens in Paris). Sometimes we are so accustomed to our home area that we miss seeing all of the wonderful things that make it special. AND I set up the folder that will hold the ideas for my NEXT trip to Paris.

Your blog is such a nice way to start my day. I love Paris! Your talent brings a smile to my face!!! Thanks for sharing Paris with us. As for coming back to reality well it's the very reason to plan another trip ASAP��

ParisBreakfast Letters

♥carol gillott♥

l'Ile Saint Louis, Paris, Ile de France, France

Hi I'm Carol Gillott,
My Mom taught me watercolors at 5. I'm still at it, now tripping over cobblestones, living in a 6th-floor garret on l'Ile Saint-Louis, Paris. Savor Parisbreakfast with a hot chocolate and croissant.
I paint Paris dreams.